Most of the fish were adult tilapia and tarpons.

The dead fish were first discovered on September 1st when over 600 were found and removed. But it continued on the following Sunday and on Monday and the numbers rose dramatically. However the efforts of several Barbados Government departments and environmentalists averted an escalation of the kill.

It has been confirmed that oxygen depletion was the cause of the disaster. Thus the adults fish were more vulnerable because they use more oxygen.

Renatta Goodridge, a marine biologist with the Natural Resources Management of the University of the West Indies, who sampled the water, confirmed that there was little oxygen at the bottom of the swamp. She said: "The reason for the oxygen deficiency was probably because of an influx of water somewhere into the main lake which stirred up the sediment on the bottom and caused the fish to die from lack of oxygen."

It is believed that the influx of water was caused by a canal dug by the Government Drainage Unit earlier this year to drain water from the main lake to alleviate floodings of nearby homes. On September 2nd a Ministry of Public Works employee, in a routine operation, cut a sand channel and opened a sluice gate. This released dead fish, which had accumulated in the canal and caused the littering of the Worthing Beach with the dead creatures. The National Conservation Commission quickly cleared these dead fish.

One theory suggests that the influx of water into the main lake not only stirred up the bottom of the lake but also brought nutrients with it and this caused aerobic bacteria (which use air to survive) to suddenly multiply, utilising much of the oxygen in the lake.